We spoke of ‘Melangell’ in the previous post but ‘Liz’, we are certain, was Jim Perrin, and ‘My Sweet Waterfall’.  Both posted on ‘To Hatch a Crow’ — pro-Jim Perrin and anti-Jac’s Sisters, and then ‘Liz’ posted several comments on the Amazon thread following a review of Jim Perrin’s book, West.

Each time we put up a new post ‘Liz’ responded to the content — sometimes within hours — on Amazon, with no mention at all of the book; the postings were obvious attempts to vilify us and to discredit our site. To be fair to Amazon they removed all those comments when we pointed out to them what was happening, although we have of course kept print-outs …

We also alerted them to our suspicions that ‘Mark’ / ‘Marc’ was, in reality, Jim Perrin.  A gushing review of his own book, with five stars, (and a gratuitous reference to Jac’s sisters), and a flattering review of a book by Niall Griffiths, with five stars, — a friend of Jim Perrin’s at the time — had been posted.  They are still there; but a review of another, intelligent and highly regarded, author’s work was so cynical in its wording as to be recognized for the malice it was, and one star.

We believe the reviews were written by Jim Perrin — using the alias ‘Mark’, and we also believe the latter review showed just how unpleasant a man he is: he knew that he had written disparagingly of a friend of the author, and that the book had been dedicated to that friend.  The particular barb had been delivered when, and although, he knew that the author’s friend had, after illness, died — even before publication of the book in 2007.  As we have already said: With Friends Like Jim Perrin Who Needs Enemies?

This review has recently been removed having been up since 02/09/2008, although we had made a copy for reference/analysis, and we believe Jim Perrin deleted it himself (as he has others) because we have certainly more than hinted in previous blogs that he was responsible — and, for those of ‘Llywarch’ — possibly he was concerned that we had drawn too close?

‘Llywarch’, ‘yrhenwr’, is an interesting study.  Claiming to be in Portland, Oregon, ‘he’ has written glorifyingly of Jim Perrin, and of his work, and scathingly — to the brink of libel — of the work of other authors.  ‘He’ made a brief appearance, commenting disdainfully about us, on the Amazon review thread during the ‘jacssisters’/Jim Perrin exchange, and with all the ‘markers’ we have noted during our cross-referencing.

Most revealing, that offensive comment has now also been spirited away: ‘we have a print-out’… but, locating comments posted by ‘Llywarch’ makes for very interesting reading, and all the points of similarity we have observed will surely be apparent to others? Extra ‘names’ might well be mentioned which perhaps have already been recognised as suspect by readers besides ourselves; although it is evident from only these examples how his use of the lengthy listing of other authors whom he habitually either praises or denigrates is a particular feature of his reviews.

*       *       *       *       *

Our point is: we believe and have no doubt in our minds, that Jim Perrin, so far from his claim to have little knowledge of the internet — and to despise those who do — has been manipulating it for years, and with an extraordinary degree of success.

And we, new to it as we are, have nevertheless with our small voices managed to achieve some remarkable results through our site ‘jacssisters’.  This we have been told by so many of our readers. Yet the British Press, when on full campaign, is of another order and we wonder, if under the fierce spotlight focused by the various publications on this latest R J Ellory internet scandal — with the very real possibility of more misdemeanours being identified, whether, by now, Jim Perrin might be feeling a little uneasy.

If it should be the case, as we certainly believe, that he has — using aliases — written most vilely about fellow authors (some of whom he has praised under his own name — so subtle and cynical, ref. Joe Simpson*) as well as shamelessly puffing his own work — and not only  the recent book in question but others before, we feel that he should qualify, along with R J Ellory, for the Hall of Shame as, in our opinion, he is more than his equal in underhand tactics and in his imaginative use of self-publicity.

Jac’s sisters.

*Jim Perrin wrote a review for The Independent  in which he greatly flattered Joe Simpson’s book ‘Touching the Void.’ and said:  ‘On every level it is an outstanding literary achievement.’ True. But we believe he posted on Amazon, 24/05/2005, as ‘Llywarch’ (an anonymous voice), a review which was entirely contrary and singularly distasteful; incorporating his favoured pseudo-psychology he awarded the book a mere two stars: this was not popular: ’1 out of 43 found this review helpful.’

And again, as ‘Llywarch’, writing of a book by Al Alvarez, 29/08/2006, sixteen months later: ‘Forget your Joe Simpsons and Chris Boningtons,’  with, at the end of the piece: ‘And unlike Joe Simpson, Alvarez sure can write!’

Such examples of two-facedness are hard to equal; displaying such calculated malice, (and of course,sycophancy).

Whilst we have previously accused him of plagiarising Joe Simpson’s title, only now do we realize What Method There Was In His Madness; googling that remarkable book, ‘Touching the Void’, brings to prominence, never-endingly, Jim Perrin’s article, with its plagiarized title, in which he told such wicked lies about our sister, Jac. Oh yes, Jim Perrin does know how to use the internet…

Much later,11/07/2018 — All the sixteen ‘Llywarch’ reviews are still to be found on Amazon, but, while the text is identical the name has been changed, in every case, to ‘Tim Bartley’. We believe this is yet more evidence that Jim Perrin is behind it. ‘Who else but HE would care? or would be sufficiently interested? or would have the motive?’ (This is to quote one of Jac’s sisters.)